The preface below is from last year....the post below that from August of 2019:
Preface: Today I took a little detour from the main boulevard to drive by what was once the Christian bookstore that back in 1982 I just happened to stop in while my wife was shopping at J. C. Penney's. Browser that I was and open to new ideas....I walked out of that store with Josh McDowell's classic Evidence That Demands A Verdict. God was about to change my shallow and aimless life. The shopping center today is barely alive....and what was the Christian bookstore....(it was called It Is Written by the way)....is empty with soaped-up windows. I stopped before it....put the flashers on....and just looked at the door handle that I placed my hand on back in 1982....that led to the glory of God overwhelming me now for 37 years....and I thanked God once again for mercies undeserved....and I wanted to tell you about it....for there is a door handle out there for you....and today is the day to reach out for it!
The Gospel Of The Wrought-Iron Life Preserver
I've noticed since retirement that the weeks and months just roll by. When I was working there was a tendency to rest and start all over at the end of every week.....but not so now.....barring some event I can go months without looking back.
Life is a journey where you don't really want it to end....sort of...."Yes I'm going somewhere.....no I don't want to get there....I'll think about this God thing thing a little later on in the journey....too busy right now." The problem with this is that....in my observation anyway.....over many many decades....the older one gets.....the harder the heart becomes. When is the last time that you heard about someone in their 70s....or even their 60s....becoming born again? It happens but not often.
Pick a celebrity from the 60s or 70s.....one that's alive.....Robert Redford maybe....or Jane Fonda....they will stand before Jesus Christ....and have to look back on a long life full of excitement and fame and money....all along the way deciding for themselves if there is a god and what he (she) would be like if there is one. I thank God that my great acting and singing talents....and movie star looks....went unnoticed by Hollywood! Folks you know I'm just kidding right....but I am thankful that I didn't have all those things.....and become a celebrity....because I also would have by now fashioned a god that served my purposes....and a gospel that required nothing more than not being an atheist....and my heart would be stone cold.
Old age to a Christian is vastly different. It's a journey where you may not exactly want it to end right away but you know that the end is the beginning of something far more wonderful than any amount of fame and fortune could ever give.
We are living in an age of the Gospel of the Wrought Iron Life Preserver. Thinking that God will simply look us over and stamp our passport into heaven because we were pretty good along the journey is like being on board a sinking ship and then grabbing a wrought iron deck chair to float on until we are rescued. The gospel of good works sinks....straight away and straight down....it's no life preserver....it's an anchor.
Today is the day friends.....if you are not known by Christ. An R. C. Sproul Daily Audio from a few days ago put this conundrum in my mind. You may think that you know Him.....so everything will work itself out....but does He know you? (Jesus Christ...the King of all Kings....and the Lord of all Lords....the Bread of Life....the Great I Am....the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.....the Risen Lord....and the Resurrection and the Life....apart from whom no one goes to the Father) Are you Born Again? If you have to ask what that is then you probably are not. Today is the day friend....for no one knows what a day will bring....and hearts get a little harder every day! (I can't remember the audio that I just referenced....but I can recommend that you listen to R. C. Sproul's very last sermon....by simply Googling just that. In that sermon R. C. does not sound very good. He went to be with his Lord and Savior and King very shortly afterwards.
